Japanese Army Uses 3,500 Tons Of Snow Creating Snow Sculpture

Find out who else was on hand to help these dedicated soldiers with this massive task:

Star Wars fans around the world are excited about today’s premiere of The Force Awakens.

Celebrations, parties, and yes, sculpture have been created in anticipation.

This piece may just be the most ambitious and epic sculpture yet.

The Japanese Ground Self-Defense Forces’ 11th Brigade used bulldozers to move 3,500 tons of snow into a pile that they then carefully crafted into a 23m-wide and 15m-tall epic monument to Darth Vader and his Imperial forces, complete with an imposing posse of Storm Troopers and TIE fighters. The epic sculpture was part of the 66th annual Sapporo Snow Festival.

In case this photo doesn’t give you enough sense of the scale of this snow sculpture, check out the one below. The scaffolding and block of snow seem to fit quite well with the neighboring buildings–10 stories tall!

The detail carved into snow is incredible. We had no idea that Japanese soldiers were artists, snow sculptors or Star Wars fans!

Well, it turns out they had a little help.

Yep, Darth Vader and some of his most loyal storm troopers appear to have had a hand in the creation.

Anticipation around this film is not new. This snow sculpture was actually created for the 2015 Sapporo Snow Festival. The festival, held in February of each year has several locations in Sapporo. This site, Odori Park, is where the Ground Self-Defense Force helps, along with local citizens, create massive works for the public’s enjoyment.

The Star Wars themed piece was not an amateur production. While most of the participants are professional sculptors, this work had the added boost of being officially endorsed by LucasFilm, the company that produces the movie franchise. On top of that, Disney, who now owns and distributes the film franchise directly supervised the design of the works.

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Mana Yazdaniamiri is an Iranian sculptor and costume designer from Tehran. She also goes by the name AbaNava Her tiny sculptures are made from "Russian paste" and are roughly 5" in size. See more of her work on her Instagram page.